by Jane Allyson

Created on: April 07, 2009

Music follows us from the moment we are born and follows us to the moment we leave the Earth. Apart from the human voice, it is the only other thing that can express hopes, aspirations, faith, joy and sorrow by using a pattern of tones and rhythm.

Music and the instruments that are used to produce it, has always been influenced by the level of cultural development within society and has developed much more quickly in different civilizations that have come together to either compliment or conflict with each other, and intermingle musical elements that reach for new heights.

In societies that remain isolated (such as rain-forest and desert tribes) musical development is slow and remains relatively unchanged because it is produced and enjoyed on a traditional basis only, rather than as a form of artistic expression.

Western music is made up of a series of patterns that will be used by composers to produce pieces of work using a number of techniques. Its main components being: rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, tempo, and texture.

The key to understanding the function of music and how musical instruments are constructed is covered by the subject of acoustics, which deals with the object of the hearing process which of course is sounds and tones.

A musical instrument produces music by using the function of a vibrating component which is designed to produce sound waves. These components can either be constructed of solid or elastic bodies and when they are oscillated will vibrate for a certain amount of time, depending on the shape of the instrument and the material it has been constructed with.

The earliest forms of music were produced by prehistoric man and archaeological relics show that the sound producing instruments that have been preserved were a collection of tattles, scrapers and clappers. These would indicate that early man possessed some sort of sense of rhythm, but it has also been suggested that music also had a functional purpose in their culture, being used to ward off evil spirits and to help cure the sick.

The later Neolithic period give us clay drums and the earliest known instruments that can be said to be deliberately fashioned are simple pipes, whistles and flutes made from drilled animal bones that date from Paleolithic times.

Throughout the march of time, from the pan pipes of the Stone Age period to the electronic music of modern times, we search for the purest form of artistic expression. With the introduction of instruments that can work in conjunction with computers, come endless possibilities that can help create a succession of sound and color that will constitute an integral part of the future development of the arts, and who knows where this will lead us? We have not heard the last word in music yet.

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